Inheritance and Star Wars: Parellels
by Sergeant Sargent II
Summary: There are some uncanny similarities between these two stories. Most fans know this, but I think I've found a few new ones. BARST THE SECOND DEATH STAR!


Eragon and Star Wars: Parallels

I'm not the first to point this out, but I think I've found a few most people haven't thought of. There are an incredible number of parallels between the Inheritance Cycle and Star Wars, Episodes 4-6 (1-3 will serve as backstory details). I will use some TV Tropes references. Many characters are only parallel for a short time; they switch around and split roles often as each story progresses. Some of these are a bit stretched, really just interesting coincidences, while others are significant plot similarities. Some involve only one character in one story and two or more in the other, but all the same pieces are present.

I do not consider this a criticism of Inheritance. I had a blast thinking through all these. Besides, in my opinion, all stories are made from the same box of building blocks, just rearranged and repainted, not always using the all the blocks. Certain formulas are just naturally loved, and so authors keep coming back and writing them again with new inspiration. Some stories never die. [If you are a Star Wars fan and this annoys you, just consider that imitation is the highest form of praise.]

TV Tropes that may require explanation:

Big Bad- The highest evil power in a story, the one who's really pulling all the strings. In Star Wars, it's Palpatine.

Dragon Character- This is the Big Bad's biggest and baddest minion. He serves as a general and/or enforcer. Usually, to get to the big bad, the hero will have to go through him first. Darth Vader is the quintessential example.

Mooks- low level minions who serve as cannon fodder in fight scenes and never actually hit anything. (look up the Imperial Storm Trooper Marksmanship Academy.)

Farm boy. First, both Eragon and Luke are farm boys. They grew up without knowing their parentage, tied to the family farm by responsibility to step parents who were close to the mother. They live far from town, dangerously so. Each discovers something important that is blue (The egg, the blue hologram saying "help me Obi-wan Kenobi! You're my only hope!), and was intended for the mentor, but came to them first by mistake.

Scorched earth and revenge. They both return to a torched home and all present family dead. This frees them each up to go off and fight the Empire.

Oh yeah, the big bad Empire! Each has a Big Bad king and a massive army of dehumanized Mooks (this changes later for Eragon, when the Empire uses human troops).

Obi-Wan/Brom. These guys are the same character, the old wise mentor with a few more tricks than anyone knows. Each poses as an old hermit with an unknown past as an epic hero. Each gives the main hero training in the secret warrior arts (Jedi=Riders), and a weapon. Each dies before this training is complete. Each dies during an escape assisted by a new friend (Han Solo=Murtagh, at least at this point). Each turns out to be a famous member of the Legendary Order.

The legendary order is persecuted by the current government, and nearly extinct. They have powers and wisdom and are devoted to peace and greater good. They are the most feared warriors in the land but supposedly deplore wanton violence and will avoid killing if possible. They are used not only as weapons, but as ambassadors, peace keepers, and spec ops. New members are recruited at a very young age, too young to make an intelligent career choice, and are chosen by powerful forces beyond their control. (Dragons choose the riders = the force is strong with this one) They start their training as younglings and work in master apprentice pairs until this training is complete. Getting the sword is a rite of passage, though different for each story.

"This was your Father's lightsaber." The Brom Obi-wan character gives the main character a weapon of mythic origin, being the signature sword of a powerful order. Neither really knows how to use it at this point, but they pick up that much training from the Mentor. It belonged to their father, though this is more complicated in both cases (Morzan wasn't really Daddy but he was for a while, and of course, Anakin/Vader). The mentor then gives the main hero some training with it.

The swords. Each member of the legendary order has a brightly colored, nearly indestructible, slightly personalized, can-cut-through-just-about-anything, essentially magical sword.

Magic=The Force. Each main character gets preliminary training in mystical powers from the mentor. (the little droid shooting at Luke with the blast shield helmet = Eragon trying to lift the pebble) Jedi mind tricks = mental combat in Inheritance. These powers are mostly used by the legendary order.

Each main hero meets a free ranging friend who becomes a strong ally. The friend is involved in the escapee that gets the mentor killed. Each friend assists in a daring mission to rescue a princess with valuable information from certain doom. Each princess turns out to be royalty and an important member of the Rebel Resistance. For now, Murtagh = Han Solo

The Princess. Each story is Prologued by an epic ambush by the Dragon Character (TV Tropes) against the Princess, who is carrying vital cargo and attended by loyal troops, all of whom die or are captured and presumably not pampered. Each princess manages to run briefly, but is pursued and captured by Mooks. They each manage to send the precious and coincidentally blue cargo to safety, addressed to the mentor, but it goes to the main hero. They are later saved in a last minute daring rescue by the main heroes (the main hero ends up in the same prison) after a period of captivity and various forms of interrogation, all of which presumably fail.

First Final Battle. The Rebel base is under attack! The Main hero distinguishes himself in the big fight. The very existence of the newly found Rebel force is threatened. At the end, the hero fights a seemingly impervious target with a small bull's eye weakness (the two meter exhaust port= pierce the shade through the heart). "Get ready for your attack run!" The trench = the dwarvish spiral slide that Eragon rides to the base of the mountain. Both are dangerously fast. Here comes the Cavalry! Help in the form of a secondary character in a big flying vehicle comes down from the sky to provide air support and open up the critical shot with a distraction. (I hate reducing Saphira to a spaceship, but in this case, she = The Millennium Falcon) "YEEEEHA! You're all clear kid, now let's blow this thing and go home!" The big target explodes epically. The final blow final blow is struck with help of some special powers. "Use the force, Luke!" = "Brisinger! *flaming sword*"

In the second volume, the hero leaves to continue his training. He is told to do so by an apparition that approaches him while he is near death. "Go to the Degoba system! Find Yoda!" = the dream from Oromis.

The Big Bad rose to power by betraying and destroying the legendary order. He seduces the lower traitor with promises of dark power, though their reasons for wanting this are different. (Galbatorix=Palpatine, Morzan=Anakin)

During the takeover, there is a fight between the big bad and a prominent member of the legendary order in which the Rider/Jedi wins, but the Big Bad beats him with a low blow due to the former's hesitation. In star wars this is a bit different because there are two fights. Windu v. Palpatine fits better, but Yoda was the leader like Vrail. Palpatine gets both of them. (Mace Windu/ and maybe Yoda v. Palpatine =Vrail v. Galbatorix)

The hero leaves to find a New and Ancient Mentor who lives in hiding in a far away forest. The mentor is not completely sound. The mentor teaches him more than just combat, with a strong emphasis on calm and meditation. The second mentor missed the traitor(s) early on. They thought something was wrong, but didn't act on it. Yoda didn't want Anakin trained; Oromis saw Morzan's and Galbatorix's issues but didn't act. The lower traitor directly betrayed the first mentor and is a father figure, though not permanently for Eragon. (Ignoring Galbatorix, Morzan = Anakin Skywalker)

He leaves the training early. Too early to beat the Dragon Character (Vader = Murtagh). He leaves because his friends are in trouble or about to be.

Gets his butt kicked by the Dragon. After rushing off to save his friends, the hero encounters and fights the Dragon Character. (This is now Murtagh for Eragon) the Dragon was sent by the Big Bad to capture and eventually turn the hero. They fight for a while, but the Dragon is clearly stronger. While holding the hero essentially at sword point, the dragon reveals that they are family. Each Hero learns the identity of his father here. (confusion on this point in Inheritance aside) "Luke! I am your Fatha'!"=Ergon! You have a father! He was Morzan! Each hero loses his weapon here. There is falling involved in both fights, though for different reasons. Eragon does his skydiving thing = Luke jumps to escape in cloud city. In both cases, the hero narrowly escapes to fight another day, though by completely different circumstances.

The Rebels are a coalition force of many races. The enemy are primarily humans (excepting Urgals in the first Inheritance book.)

Air travel. Every time Luke uses a ship to go somewhere, and Eragon takes an equivalent trip, the Ship = Saphira. Escape from the prison with a princess on board, trips to and from the mew mentor, every time he flies into battle…

"I see you have constructed a new light saber." Each hero builds a new sword.

Both Fathers have a clandestine romance in their back stories that involved two children. The siblings were separated before they could know one and other. One was raised by royalty, the other as a farm boy by people who knew the mother. Both mothers die tragically, and daddy finds out later, spurring a violent and all consuming spree of vengeance (for Anakin the death of _his_ mother was bigger.) The similarity ends here, but all the same character roles are present, just mixed around. Beyond this point, Brom = Obi-wan.

Each main character is the "last hope for the good guys," although in both cases there is a slightly confusing second hope, Leia = the green dragon egg. Yoda mentions "no, there is another" and of course, the remaining dragon eggs.

Murtagh = Vader. Oh yeah. He has a red sword. In the last book, Murtagh is shown wearing a mask and a cape. He is a warrior-slave enforcer for the Big Bad who believes himself lost beyond saving or redemption. "There is still good in you, I sense it!"/"You don't know the power of Dark Side of the Force! I _must _obey my master!" = Murtagh says essentially the same thing as they fight above the Varden. Luke: "Let go of your hate!" = Eragon: "Let go of you anger, for one." There are tons of parallels in the final confrontation with the Big Bad, to be discussed below.

Big Bad Final Confrontation. The main hero meets the big bad for the first time. He enters at the Big Bad's bidding, for he has been waiting. The big bad sits on a throne and has amazing swagger. During this confrontation, the Final Final Battle is raging outside, but "your rebel friends are walking into a trap," because the Death Star is fully operational and the shields are still up, and Galbatorix has the Name. The Big Bad is intent on turning the hero to the Dark Side, willingly or not. The Hero and the Dragon have an Epic sword fight while the Big Bad looks on and officiates, laughing at the result. Even the color scheme is right. It's a big gloomy room, with red sword v. blue sword. (Luke's was green, but close enough, especially since it was blue in the original manuscript but they changed it to green for animation and color contrast reasons.) The Hero wins by non lethally wounding the dragon. (After this point, though at different times, the Dragon turns and betrays the Big Bad.) The hero then proceeds to confront the Big Bad, but gets his butt Royally Kicked, (Eragon almost gets his mind broken, and Luke gets electrocuted for almost a full onscreen minute) before winning because they were right on some moral level. (Eragon makes Galbatorix _understand,_ and Luke was right, Vader did have some good left in him.) When the big bad dies, the body is obliterated. There is then a _massive_ explosion. To escape, the hero must take immediate action. There is skeleton imagery in both fights. (Galbatorix's death is implied to be a nuclear explosion and Roran sees some guy's skeleton briefly; when Vader tosses the Emperor, and later while he is still twitching and sparking, we see his skull flash a few times.)

The Final Final Battle. Some of these are stretched, but all the same elements are present even if the character roles are mixed up and doubled (the shields) in some cases. Barst is the Second Death Star! He is a big, shielded, rotund, target with massive fire power. The Death Star kills the Medical Frigate; Barst kills the Queen. The final battle takes place outside the base where the final confrontation is taking place. "The shields are still up!" = Oh no, we can't use magic! While this battle is raging, a small team of warriors is going after a separate critical objective, the one controlling the "shields," that are giving the rebels so much trouble. (Galbatorix has the name; Han and His Team are hitting the shield generator.) In both cases, this team has to fight off booby traps and is essentially ambushed. They rode in on a ship by way of airborne subterfuge (once again, Saphira is a ship that Eragon and the elves rode in on, the stolen shuttle that gets Han's team down to Endor. Both teams fly in under supposed secrecy.) Lando = Roran for the most part, though Roran gets some parts of Han's job too. While the shields are up, the Rebels take heavy casualties. During this period, Roran and Lando scheme to overcome the Death Star/Barst. "Yes, get as close as you can!... we'll last longer than we will against that Death Star!" = Roran's scheme to kill Barst. This one is thin. Once its shields are down, Roran/Lando makes a final run to destroy the Death Star. Both Death Stars die when the Main Power Source is damaged. (the Eldunari cracks, they shoot the generator in the Core) To reiterate, both battles end with a _massive_ explosion to finish off the saga. The Empire is no more!

There are more than this. If I think of enough, I'll post another chapter. Hope you found these as entertaining as I did! if you think of some that I missed, leave them in a review!

Stay Epic my Friends!

Later!


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